Usually I am off on Mondays, but this week due to my schedule I am in the office. I thought I would post a few random thoughts about this that and the other thing.
1. Yesterday I got to thinking about our resurrected bodies and the question popped into my mind: When we receive our resurrected bodies, will those who die younger appreciate their new bodies as much as those who die of old age? After all, those of us (and I am getting ever closer to this experience) who undergo the affects of aging experience a lot of unpleasant, uncomfortable and downright painful days where our bodies just "ain't what they used to be!" So if we do indeed have memories of life on earth (and the account of the afterlife that Jesus gives in Luke 16 would seem to indicate that we will) - I would think that those who die later in life and have gone through aging process will indeed appreciate their new resurrect bodies more so than those who never had this earthly experience (see 1 Corinthians 15:42ff).
2. Being a grandparent is such a blessing! I was reminded of this when our son and his wife brought our grand baby Ella to our worship service for the first time yesterday (of course, she was nice and quiet until I started to preach my sermon --- but my guess it was just her way of shouting "Amen, preach it Papa John!"). It was a joy to introduce baby Ella to so many of our friends here at Grace!
3. The Word of God is powerful ... and effective. One of the passages from the Bible that I read yesterday as part of my message was Isaiah 55:10-11, which reads: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." God's Word will ALWAYS accomplish God's purpose. And God's purpose for us is to be conformed to the image of His Son. So if we are IN God's Word ... striving to KNOW it ... and striving to OBEY it - God will make us more like Jesus! You see, I believe in the sufficiency of the Bible, which I define as follows: The Bible is sufficient to provide the Truth I must KNOW and OBEY in order to live my life to God's glory and be conformed to Christ's image. Do you believe this? What does your frequency of interaction (reading, meditating on, studying, memorizing) say about your belief (or non-belief) in the sufficiency of the Bible?
Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj
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